The Department of Earth Sciences is the

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

department of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The department is based in the Earth Sciences building on

South Parks Road South Parks Road is a road in Oxford, England. It runs east–west past the main Science Area of the University of Oxford. Many of the university science departments are located nearby or face the road, including parts of the geography, z ...

in the Science Area.

Overview

The department's research is broad but with an emphasis on

geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

natural hazard A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides - including submarin ...

s and

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

, and was the top-ranked department nationally in the 2014 REF assessment as well as ranking highly in international league tables. The department teaches an undergraduate degree in Earth Sciences (leading to a 3-year BA in Geology or 4-year MEarthSci in Earth Sciences) with approximately 120 undergraduates, and entry is highly competitive. The course is interdisciplinary and quantitative, with a major research project in the fourth year. The department has 6 Multi-Collector Mass Spectrometers, 2 ICP Mass Spectrometers, specialised geochemistry, biogeochemistry and petrology laboratories including clean suites, a workshop for sample preparation and a library with c. 10,000 volumes (as well as map collections).

History

Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford dates back to the 17th Century with the work of naturalists such as

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd (1660– 30 June 1709), also known as Edward Lhwyd and by other spellings, was a Welsh scientist, geographer, historian and antiquary. He was the second Keeper of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and published the firs ...

and

Robert Plot Robert Plot (13 December 1640 – 30 April 1696) was an English naturalist and antiquarian who was the first professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Early life and education Born in Bor ...

. However, the first formal appointment was in 1813, with

William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian, geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. His work in the early 1820s proved that Kirkdale Cave in North Yorkshire h ...

designated as Reader in Mineralogy, and later Professor of Geology. The establishment of the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the univers ...

in 1860 was influential in the history of Geology at the University, and has collaborated closely with the Department of Earth Sciences (established as the School of Geology in 1888) ever since. The School was based in the museum until 1949, where it moved into a new building opposite

Keble College Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to ...

(now occupied by the

Department of Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

). The department moved again in 2010 to the building it occupies now.

Notable people

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles ...

John Phillips (geologist) John Phillips Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (25 December 1800 – 24 April 1874) was an English geologist. In 1841 he published the first global geologic time scale based on the correlation of fossils in rock strata, thereby helping to standa ...

Nevil Story Maskelyne Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story Maskelyne (3 September 1823 – 20 May 1911) was an England, English geologist and politician. Scientific career Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, Maskelyne taught mineralogy and chemistry at Oxford from 1851, befor ...

Joseph Prestwich Sir Joseph Prestwich (12 March 1812 – 23 June 1896) was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme valley ...

* Alexander Henry Green * Henry Alexander Miers *

William Johnson Sollas William Johnson Sollas (30 May 1849 – 20 October 1936) was a British geologist and anthropologist. After studying at the City of London School, the Royal College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines he matriculated to St. John's Colleg ...

William Joscelyn Arkell William Joscelyn Arkell FGS, FRS (9 June 1904 – 18 April 1958) was a British geologist and palaeontologist, regarded as the leading authority on the Jurassic Period during the middle part of the 20th century. Childhood Arkell was born in ...

* John Bowman *

Lawrence Wager Lawrence Rickard Wager, commonly known as Bill Wager, (5 February 1904 – 20 November 1965) was a British geologist, explorer and mountaineer, described as "one of the finest geological thinkers of his generation"Vincent and best remembered for ...

John Frederick Dewey John Frederick Dewey (born 22 May 1937) is a British structural geologist and a strong proponent of the theory of plate tectonics, building upon the early work undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s. He is widely regarded as an authority on the ...

Keith O'Nions Sir Robert Keith O'Nions (born 26 September 1944), is a British scientist and ex-President & Rector of Imperial College London. He is the former Director General of the Research Councils UK as well as Professor of the Physics and Chemistry of Mi ...

John Woodhouse (geophysicist) John Henry Woodhouse is an English geophysicist, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford . He earned a Ph.D in 1975 in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge Universi ...

* Don Fraser * Philip England *

Alexander Halliday Sir Alexander Norman Halliday (born 11 August 1952) is a British geochemist and academic who is the Founding Dean Emeritus of the Columbia Climate School, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He joined the Earth Institu ...

* Bernie Wood * Tony Watts *

Chris Ballentine Dr. Chris Ballentine is the chair of geochemistry and head of the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. He uses properties of the noble gases to unders ...

* Gideon Henderson * John-Michael Kendall *

Tamsin Mather Tamsin Alice Mather (born 1976) is a British Professor of Earth Sciences at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford and a Fellow of University College, Oxford. She studies volcanic processes and their impacts on the Earth's en ...

* Ros Rickaby *

William James Kennedy William James "Jim" Kennedy is a British geologist. Jim Kennedy studied at the University of London. Kennedy was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. He was curator of the Geological C ...

References

External links

Website

History of the department

TwitterVideo introduction to the undergraduate course
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